CWTA - Connecticut Rivers - Hammonasset River



Connecticut Water Trails Association

"A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself."

-- Laura Gilpin

Table Of Contents

Connecticut Water Trails

Connecticut Rivers

Connecticut Boat Launches

Connecticut Water Trails Program

Connecticut Rivers

Hammonasset River

Site Location:

Basic Information:

The Hammonasset River is formed about 4 miles southeast of Durham, Connecticut along a gulley on the north end of Bunker Hill at about a half mile northeast of the junction of Route 148 and Bunker Hill Road. The river travels for about 20 miles to Clinton Harbor along Long Island Sound just east of Hammonasset Beach State Park. A popular paddling route runs for about 10 miles starting along Summer Hill Road about 2.5 miles south on Route 79 from North Madison, Connecticut. This is a scenic river run with mostly flat and quickwater, but with a few Class I-II whitewater areas.

The watershed forms in the north-west corner of Killingworth, on the eastern edge of the Hartford Basin, at an elevation of 300 feet msl, in an area of streams, swamps, bogs, and wetlands. It finally takes the form of a river and begins its flow toward Long Island Sound, through a dry lake bed that was once part of Lake Hammonasset. As it flows, it forms the border between the counties of New Haven and Middlesex.

At the southwestern end of the lake, a dam restrains the river and retains its waters in a 100+ acre reservoir. The spillway elevation is 273 feet. The water has descended only about 30 feet in the seven or eight rambling miles since its formation; it will fall the remaining 273 feet in the eight linear miles it flows to Clinton Harbor and Long Island Sound.

As the river moves through Madison and Clinton, population density increases, and industry begins to impact the waters. Threats from new large scale housing developments, industrial pollution, and destruction of salt marsh habitat are a constant challenge to the river, its watershed and its estuary.

The Hammonasset River Watershed stretches from Durham to Clinton and includes the towns of Killingworth and Madison. The Killingworth, Madison and Clinton Basins include about 56,000 acres. The charts on the pages 9 through 11, show the town boundaries, the watershed boundaries, watercourses and surface flow.

The Estuary as seen from the sound, Hammonassett Beach is on the far left, with salt marsh bracketing the river as it sweeps around Cedar Island. Shifting sand bars on the right guard the entrance to the harbor.

The Hammonasset River encompasses several different ecosystems. At its headwaters, fresh water swamps, bogs and streams form an inland wetland environment. From Lake Hammonasset to its junction with Route 95, the river flows through a typical New England hardwood forest. It empties into Long Island Sound through one of the most important tidal salt marsh basins in the northeast. In combination with the Indian River and the Hammock River, both of which join it in Clinton Harbor, it forms an incredibly rich estuary of sand flats, miniature barrier islands and tidal wetlands.

Downstream of the dam at Lake Hammonasset, the river runs through bucolic settings, land preserved by the Madison Land Conservation Trust on the west bank and the Killingworth Land Conservation Trust on the east. Hiking trails accompany the river for many miles, as its flows toward the Sound. Several environmental groups work to keep the area as natural as possible. In addition to the Land Trusts, a group called Friends of Hammonasset work to protect the area of the State Park and the surrounding Salt Marsh.

While most people are intent on enjoying the natural beauty of this river there are those whose sensibilities are not as well developed.

Type: River

Water Type: Freshwater / Tidal

Length:

Season:

Site Contact Information:

Site Coordinates:

Longitude: 72.559856 ºW Latitude: 41.285704 ºN

Madison

Killingworth

Clinton

Location Maps:

USGS Quadrangles:

Driving Directions:

Directions Map: Google Map

Regulations:

Toilets:

Parking:

Parking Spaces:

Parking Fees:

Boat Launch Information:

ADA Access:

Site Description:

Environment:

Additional Info:

Paddling The Hammonasset River:

Paddling Hammonasset River

Hammonasset River Whitewater

Middlesex County - Hammonasset River

New Haven County - Hammonasset River

Site History:

Man first came to the Connecticut valleys about 12,000 years ago, after the last ice age. Originally living as nomadic hunters, they settled and became hunter gatherers. By the time European settlers first reached this area the ‘Indians’ were accomplished agriculturalists. The Hammonasset Indians were one of five woodland tribes that inhabited the lower Connecticut valley. They were mostly farmers, subsisting mainly on corn, beans, and squash, but they also fished and hunted. The Indian word "Hammonasset" means, "where we dig holes in the ground", and refers to the place where they farmed along the Hammonasset River.

“The sachem, or leader, of the Hammonassets was Sebaguenosh, which means 'man who weeps.' He had several reasons for being the man who weeps. His beloved and beautiful daughter married Uncas, sachem of the Mohegans, who was also a traitor to his red brothers. In the same marriage Sebeguenosh lost the control of his lands to Uncas, who turned around and sold them to the whites.”

Europeans first settled in the Hammonasset area around then the middle of the 17th Century. Moving east from New Haven, and west from Rhode Island they settled the towns now known as Guilford, Madison, Killingworth and Clinton. Several changes occurred in nomenclature and geography before the current arrangement of towns and counties was adopted. The Hammonasset River became the boundary for the towns of Clinton and Madison and for a large section of the border between New Haven and Middlesex County. A history of Middlesex County, published in 1884, gives a glimpse of what it might have been like 200 years early in 1663.

On the west was no ford on the Hammonassett River, except about two miles north of Main Street, Clinton, just below Hammonassett Mills. Tradition says that footmen between Saybrook and Guilford kept along the seabeach of Long Island Sound. But there was a delightful spot at the head of a beautiful harbor, where the first settlers located Main Street. This street runs a little north of west and south of east about a half mile north of the head of the harbor. An abundance of oysters, fish, and clams were to be found in the harbor and in the rivers as far up as salt water flowed.

By the beginning of the 18th century a viable community of farmers had settled in the area around Hammonasset. Salt hay from the marshes was a valuable product as it was used both for feed and for insulation for ice, which was harvested in the winter from the ponds and shallow bays in the area and stored in ice houses. Fishing was a major industry, for food, fertilizer and for oil.

During the 1790's the major activity was porpoise fishing. Between 1792 and 1793 some 600 or 700 porpoise were caught for use as fertilizer and fin oil. The Hammonasset beach was used as the site for the burning down process, a part of the process in the manufacture of fish oil.

Of course, in the 21st Century, porpoises are not frequent visitors to the area. Over-hunting and pollution from pesticides and PCBs have driven them away and helped ensure that they no longer exist in significant numbers in Long Island Sound.

By the 17th Century, there were already mills on the Hammonasset River. An old drawing entitled the Mill at Nineveh Falls on the Hammonasset shows an early mill. Note that the area surrounding the mill is clear of trees, and the river looks far from natural as it flows by the old mill.

There were four mills located on the Hammonasset River: two sawmills, a gristmill, and a pulp and paper mill. The gristmill and one of the sawmills were located where the Railroad bridge, I-95 and River Road cross the Hammonasset River. The dam and some of the foundation is still present. The other saw mill and paper mill were farther upstream almost in Killingworth. The lumber from these mills went to support the ship building trade of Madison. Many of the planks were floated down the Hammonasset River, and then they were taken to East and West Wharves [in Madison]. Many of the schooners and other ships were tested in the waters off of Hammonasset Beach.

In the 1920s the State of Connecticut began acquiring land for Hammonasset State Park, the area had been owned by the Winchester Repeating Arms, Co. and used as a gunnery range for testing weapons and ammunition. To control mosquitoes, drainage ditches were dug in the salt marsh at about 125 foot intervals. The State has continued to develop and expand Hammonasset and it has become one of the most popular locations in the State Park system. Rum-running was a popular past time during prohibition and Clinton Harbor and its rivers were active smuggling areas.

In the 1930s John Griswold established the airport along the Hammonasset that bears his name; it is the sight of a controversial new plan for high density housing development. In 1938 a Great Hurricane struck the New England coastline. Areas of the coastal floodplain were devastated.

At Hammonassett Beach, the boardwalk and many of the buildings were destroyed. The area was hit by another bad storm in 1955.

During World War II, Hammonasset Beach was closed and the area of beach and salt marsh was used as an aerial gunnery range. At least one aircraft lies in the murky waters of Long Island Sound right off the beach. In the last half century, as Connecticut’s shoreline towns have become bedroom communities for suburban commuters, population pressures have had a noticeable impact on the Hammonasset watershed. Agriculture is no longer the mainstay of the area. Industry, commerce and residential development all are encroaching on the river and its environment.

Portions of the above info from ‘A History of Hammonasset’ researched and written by Gary Dunn of the CT DEP.